166 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Returning to the question of persistent aggressiveness in se- 

 verely "wounded men, two instances remarkable in a special way 

 are worthy of note. There was no warlike anger, but simply 

 sudden excitement, for a cause. In one instance two soldiers 

 were practicing at bayonet exercise and became very much 

 warmed up, as men do in a boxing match. Finally, when one of 

 them made a lunge at the breast of the other, the muzzle was 

 knocked down slightly by the opposing piece and a discharge 

 followed, the bullet going through the groin. With this fright- 

 ful wound, given at a couple of feet at most, the unfortunate 

 victim kept a tight grip on his piece, staggered forward, and 

 made fitful lunges at his opponent, who dropped his gun and ran, 

 terrified by the unearthly stare and grimace and the frenzied ac- 

 tions of the other. It was supposed that the balls had been 

 drawn, and the man whose piece went off did not know at once 

 that the charge was fatal. The injured man gave chase for a 

 few paces and then fell dead.* A case where there was even less 

 external incitement to extraordinary endurance is recorded by 

 Captain J. F. J. Caldwell, in a history of Gregg and McGowan's 

 South Carolina Brigade. During the engagement at Sutherland's 

 Station, below Petersburg, April 22, 1865, Captain Caldwell, while 

 riding over the field on staff duty, met two Union soldiers who 

 had broken through the Confederate lines with a charging col- 

 umn that had been repulsed, and become separated from their 

 comrades. Resistance was useless, and they dropped their guns 

 and followed the captain toward the Confederate rear. One of 

 the prisoners lagged on the march, and, on being told to step 

 lively, he held up one arm and showed such a bloody and dis- 

 tressing wound that the captain allowed him his own gait. All 

 the time both prisoners chatted briskly about the Union tactics, 

 and boasted that the tables would soon be turned upon the Con- 

 federates. When the party came to a fence the wounded man 

 helped to let down rails for the captain's horse, and in every way 

 showed good spirits and fair condition. At the first medical 

 bivouac Captain Caldwell turned his charge over to a surgeon, 

 who found a second wound in the patient's breast, and in a few 

 minutes after halting death ended his captivity. The man had 

 borne up under a mortal wound, with the spur of personal enthu- 

 siasm and expectation. He had hoped for a recapture by the ad- 

 vance of the Union lines. 



The conduct of wounded men after an interval I do not pur- 

 pose to describe. So soon as the mind gets settled down to the 



*Pare, the French surgeon, recorded the case of a duelist who received a sword-thrust 

 through the heart, large enough to admit a finger, and who followed up his fleeing antago- 

 nist, thrusting repeatedly, for two hundred yards before he fell. 



